Imagine your day job is a factory Porsche driver and that you’re thrown the keys to a new Boxster Spyder to drive to work:
You have to get the basics right. It doesn’t matter how much performance a car has if the driving position is terrible, or the seat doesn’t hold you properly. This is perfect: the wheel is the right size and shape and has no buttons on it. I need them on my 919, but not here. Nothing is more complicated than it needs to be; everything is designed to let you focus on the driving, and that’s what matters.
Then, when you get there, you get some time in a classic 550 Spyder:
If you look at it, you see how well Porsche understood the fundamentals of what makes a great driving machine even then. The car is incredibly light even by modern standards, and putting a boxer engine behind the driver is as good as you can get from the point of view of weight distribution and center of gravity. I loved the gearbox, the engine response, the handling balance, and the whole feel of the car. And it has that sense you get in modern Porsche sports cars that it could go all day, all night, and all the next day and still be ready for more.
And then the real work starts: the 6 Hours of Silverstone.
Sure beats sitting on your arse hanging around shopping malls for hours.
[Source: Porsche]